This review contains spoilers

its alright

multiplayer is fine
I just did 1v1s vs my friend since I don't feel like getting stomped into the ground by the 3 people who actually play this game

and the campaign is fine
gameplay wise its neat but can be cheesed pretty easily
for example:
I was fighting the flood
spoilers I know
but I was trying to use my base knowledge of halo games to defeat the flood
flood in every other game is weak to fire and ive never seen a flying flood spore

just started spamming flamethrower guys and hornets
flamethrower guys got infected and now the weak to fire flood were wielding fire and my hornets got demolished by the anti air flood meatball launcher

oh and flying flood birds exist ig
which is cool just unexpected

whatever I got fucked over
looked up a ign guide
they spammed tanks
I spammed tanks
I won
awesome

the story is also just
fine
I think the ideas presented are interesting with the shield worlds and the early discovery of the flood and all that

but the one note characters are just kinda mid
forges death meant nothing to me
and I think red team has like maybe 3 voice lines at most in the whole game
actually I think they are only in like one cutscene

Edit: I forgot to include some good things

overall aesthetic of the game is really nice
especially the like mini bases and troops
all looks really cool

all the new troops and vehicle ideas here are also really cool

halo fits pretty well as an RTS
and this game shows the potential of halo spin offs in other genres

good game but I dare say
I feel a little led on
overhyped

this one just isn't fun and very bland
which sucks cause nightwing is like the best character

I thought this was just actually part of the main story and now im learning that it isn't and instead dlc

its cool however

my game crashed after the ending cutscene and now it says I only did 90% of it but I swear I beat it

and this one is actually really damn good
a ton of effort put into it

main reason its a 4 star and not anything higher is that batgirl plays just like batman

oh and im ass and that carousel bit with the 100+ dudes kinda pissed me off

short and simple
but running around as a gun wielding vigilante who kills makes it a little better than the harley quinn one

short and simple
harley being able to take on nightwing and a endless supply of cops also feels wrong

oh and nightwing is also just a stun stick enemy

I do really like what they did for harley's ui and gadgets however

This review contains spoilers

after playing the other 2 games I decided to replay this one
finally complete the arkham trilogy for the first time
and yes I did say arkham trilogy because I don't own arkham origins and while I would like to play it one day tim sweeney decided not to bless me with the game for free on the epic games store unlike the other arkham games

anyways
Arkham Knight!

this game is super interesting
out of the 3 games its very easily the odd one out
the other 2 games were dark and gritty but still had that comic book flair

this game is just dark, gritty, semi realistic and a whole lot of sci-fi robo shit to go along with it

I mean look at his new suit
looks like a mcu suit

but thats not to say thats a bad thing
its atmosphere and visuals is the best in the series I think and hold up really fucking well to this day

everything about this game is practically the best in the series
the combat? perfection
the gliding and overall movement? fantastic
the stealth? amazing

ironically its all the new shit that ends up being pretty bad
aka
the batmobile

now I don't hate it as much as everyone else
and hell I think being able to drive the batmobile at all is pretty damn cool

it looks cool as hell and the overall idea isn't even that bad
the execution just wasn't very good...

the thing I imminently noticed when using it is that it controls like shit
I try doing a high speed chase and just crash into literally fucking everything

now I saw another review either on this site or on youtube saying how
its supposed to control like shit
you're controlling a big heavy tank

and you know what
fair enough
it does feel like im driving around a absolute fucking beast
it just gets really annoying at times

battle mode for the batmobile however is the exact opposite
it controls so smoothly
its perfect

whats not perfect is the whole reason for battle mode
aka the shooting

you see ive been playing these games on controller since I feel thats what these games were made for

and I don't know if its the PC port or what but I swear there is no aim assist when shooting any of those guns

I know thats a corny complaint but trying to aim on a joystick is horrendous plus the whole combat loop with the batmobile is boosting/dodging out of the way of incoming fire while also accurately shooting targets especially since the main gun has to reload after every damn shot

so yeah not being able to aim properly is pretty damn annoying

also there really only is 3 things to do with the damn car

1. the chases
2. the races
3. the combat encounters

the first 2 suck cause of the car controlling like ass and the last one sucks because of aiming the gun plus the encounters starting to feel repetitive due to there only being like 3 or 4 enemy types and their idea of game design is to just throw them all at you at once

yeah the batmobile kinda sucks

another new thing the game tried was a more grandiose story
and while its probably my favorite in the series
its not without flaws

the biggest and most obvious one is the arkham knight aka jason todd

now I didn't get to experience the marketing for this game and rocksteady lying about his identity

and on my first time playing this game I already knew who the arkham knight was cause its a hard to avoid spoiler

and this is a replay so obviously I knew who he was

but even if I didn't this game spells it out for you like crazy
there is no mystery

the whole game the arkham knight just goes on and on about how much he knows about batman and taunts him about being a old man and knowing all of his tricks

and then out of nowhere joker is just like "hey wanna know a story about a robin who has never been mentioned once in any of the previous games who I kidnaped and killed and also maybe has an extreme hatred for you cause of me?"

wow the game really does make me wonder who the arkham knight is

ok whatever
the twist sucks
but I still think the overall story told with him isn't that bad
I actually liked the more batfamily story this time around
tbh I just wish they got more screen time
I mean hell nightwing is basically only shown off in the side missions
and tim gets treated like shit in all of these games (rip btw)

to briefly mention scarecrows involvement in the story
he was good
he felt very different from asylum but I do prefer his appearance here more

and now for the other controversial part of this story
the joker!

listen
I know hes overused like crazy
but dammit man not only is he the best part of this story
hes the best part of this game
hell this is also his best performance in the whole series!

hes so good in fact that I beat almost every notable villain before actually beating the main story just to get extra joker dialogue

keyword being "almost"
I did all of the riddler missions just for him to tell me to fuck off and don't come back until I do all 243 riddles

yeah no fuck that shit

however this is a good time to go into side quest!!

also probably the best in the series

I mean no way in hell am I doing the 3 quest lines dedicated to taking down the militia cause thats boring as hell

and I also don't feel like doing 243 riddler shits

but the rest of them are pretty damn good!

I mean another on here review pointed out how they can be kinda repetitive
and gave man bat as an example
how you just glide into him and play the exact same animation 3 times over

or firefly where you do the same chase sequence like 3 or 4 times

and like yeah
thats fair

but I still had a ton of fun with all of them

also the man bat jump scare was awesome
and exploring his lab was haunting
so I overall disagree with the man bat hate

oh and pyg was also so damn good that I just feel a need to mention it here

oh and the hush one was good but kinda expected more from his build up in city

I also love how all of these quest lines including the main story and dlc play into the ever evolving GCPD building

so fucking cool
I love it

the big thing this games missing is boss fights
they were great in city and just no where to be found here

why?????

the combat here is the best yet but decided to remove the best way to show it off (also the best parts from city) in favor of more batmobile shits

this is why im giving this game a 4 stars while city is a 4.5

I think I prefer this game and this game is the best in the series at a lot of things
but a lot of it comes with some really lame downsides

oh and I guess I should quickly mention that apparently there is 2 knightfall endings and one is mid and one is good but the good one requires 100% the game

kinda lame

overall however
good game!

had fun playing through the whole trilogy of games

quick thoughts after just beating it:
ive beaten this before beating the main story because in my replay through this game I just wanted to hear as much joker dialogue as I can

so was I ever disappointed to see there is none for this dlc
not even for ra's

anyways to quickly breakdown each thing here

mad hatter one was really disappointing
I mean the ending with the story book was pretty cool
but overall a downgrade from city

mr freeze one was great story wise but gameplay wise it was just more taking down of the militia and the tank fight at the end was pretty lame

killer croc one was amazing in terms of atmosphere
got the terrifying vibes done just right
just wish fighting him was more interesting

and the ra's one was also pretty good
the choice at the end was also pretty interesting

maybe I should give this 4 stars like everyone else but I just kinda wish some actual boss fights were done or something

everything still kinda just felt like more of the same

since were technically on CU31 now I figured I should just review this already

lets just get it out of the way
this update sucks

I still think operations are ass and basically everything newly added in this update was cosmetics

don't get me wrong the cosmetics (besides the chimera ones) are god damn fantastic

My personal favorites is obv the mark iv core and armor
but also the classic AR and the banished themed armor and weapon models

but cosmetics are still cosmetics
not to mention most of this shit was in the store and heavily overpriced instead of what could have easily been a $10 battle pass

but yeah gameplay wise the only things this update added was a kinda new mode, 1 new dev map and 2 new forge made dev maps (well at the time of writing this Corrosion actually isn't out yet)

I mean yeah that 1 new dev map aka illusion is great
and they did also overhaul a few playlist to add in some more community forge maps

but thats just my biggest issue with this game right now
the community is doing all the work

and im not trying to discredit the devs hard work
I do think CU31 was a pretty cool update

and im not trying to discredit the community forgers either
their maps are amazing and deserve to be in official matchmaking

but again
the only things gameplay wise added this update that were dev made was
1 new dev map
2 new dev made forge maps
and a kinda new mode

and im gonna be honest
the kinda new mode aka Gruntpocalypse im pretty sure could have been made in custom games

its also not that fun

and the forge made dev maps?
im sorry they look like ass
especially when compared to community made forge maps

now sure looks aren't everything
the most important thing is how they play

Elevation for example was praised on how it plays because of its fun little low grav area/gimmick

kinda reminded me of a reach map

but still a kinda mid dev made forge map being the only thing cyber showdown 3 added gameplay wise while the shop was filled with a insane amount of newly added, kinda ugly and heavily overpriced cosmetics

like I think you get the point
that fucking sucks

which reminds me
quick rundown of the operations

spirit of fire was cool
cyber showdown 3 sucked
yappening 2 is alright

nothing about any of these is really that special however and they seriously don't feel like events

maybe yappening kinda does since it has the new firefight mode

but all of these really just feel like shop updates

huge downgrade from season 5

my game didn't crash but the game was still a little jank
but as a free little add on
its a fun visual thing to explore

my highscore is 16734 on iphone

I prefer this to galaxy 1 heavily and yet im still giving this game a 4 stars just like galaxy 1 (however dont be surprised if I knock down galaxy 1 to a 3.5)

this game is great with stars and galaxies that I can only describe as fantastic

and thats the biggest reason I prefer this game to galaxy 1

galaxy 1 felt really shallow compared to other 3D marios and this is for a variety of reasons but a big one to me were the lackluster to explore galaxies and some somewhat common meh stars

galaxy 2 still is still shallow when compared to 64, sunshine or odyssey imo but its galaxies and themes are great and way better than galaxy 1 imo
and its stars are mostly consistently great

the trade off of this however is that this game is galaxy in name only

seriously did anyone notice that most of the skyboxes for these galaxies were blue skies and white clouds?

and instead of exploring a tiny planet im exploring a jungle with birds

this game made its worlds/galaxies feel more alive while also sacrificing the charm galaxy 1 had

it honestly feels more like generic mario cause of it

its not just the galaxies either

starship mario is so mid compared to Rosalina's spaceship
the plot in this game is so bare bones compared to galaxy 1 which was already kinda bare unless reading the charming storybook

the plot also doesn't really make sense?

it feels as if everything that happened in galaxy 1 just
well didn't happen
hell this game even starts on the same comet festival thing that only happens every 100 years

how old is mario?!?!?!

but whatever im complaining about the plot of a mario game

like I said before the stars were mostly great and I was in shock on how much I liked the comet stars this time around too

actually the comet star system this time around is so much better
the game tells me when one arrives
from what I can tell they never disappear
and still allow me to do other stars within that galaxy

I also really enjoy finding comet medals

but maybe its me having a bad morning or something but
I couldn't help but feel this game started to get a little stale as it went on and a little more bullshitty

as a sunshine fan starshine beach was so incredibly bare and boring and I was disappointed

chompworks galaxies first star was so unique and fun
then the 2nd star was probably one of the worst in the game
it just removes the whole gimmick of the first star and just replaces it with hopping around as spring mario

the worst power up ive ever had the displeasure of using

and you jump up a tower thats copied and pasted from fluffy buff galaxy

anyways the gobblegut boss fight sucks

clockwork ruins is so buggy in its gravity that its just not fun

the comet star on beat block was so ass that I save stated every 2 seconds

gliding with a fluzzard is horrible but I think thats cause im using a steam deck and its motion controls

the trash mini games suck

the chimps score challenge in honey hop was kinda ass

I think the bowling challenge in melty monsters was also a little off but I overall really enjoyed it and its gimmick so it gets a pass

oh and the final level which I just beat today
its actually pretty decently challenging but still fun

but wow is that final fight ever so fucking easy and therefore kinda disappointing

oh and what the fuck is this games obsession with the cloud flower?
its used more than any other power up I don't get it

overall though I really enjoyed this game and im gonna go work on the special world now that I finished the main game and ill update this if I have any extra thoughts after beating all that

cause yeah this game actually makes me want to 100% it unlike galaxy 1


Decent DLC

I like seeing batmans struggles after everything that happened in the base game and playing as robin is pretty cool

simple but fun and kinda interesting